Lost in Translation - Work Trip Continues - June 10-12, 2012

Sunday, June 10th, we loaded up into cars and took a tour around the East side of Hai Ning. Hai Ning is both a city and a county so there is a lot to see within the county. It felt like we were seeing more of the "real" China - the part that reminds you that this is very much still a developing country.

We also visited Hai Ning's top tourist attraction, although it wasn't very exciting when we got there. Hai Ning is known for having spectacular tides but the tide didn't come in for a few hours after we visited. Still, it was nice to see a big body of water. I feel so landlocked in Beijing.

Sunday afternoon I went with some of the girls in my group to a local mall. Every floor had a different specialty but we stayed on the first floor where they sold (fake) bags. I was hoping to find something but it was all too flashy for me. Plus, prices were high! One of my co-workers wanted to buy a bag but they wanted 700 yuan for it - over $100!! I was like "you can

Sunday evening, we headed down the street to the really Western-looking plaza and went to the Australian bar. As soon as we walked in I felt so good. There was hockey on TV! I had already looked up the score to the game which had aired that morning, but I coul WATCH it! And there were two other white people. Didn't know there were other white people in Hai Ning. My supervisor ordered a bunch of beer and snacks and it felt like being at a pub back in North America. Good times. I played foosball against two of my co-workers. Then my supervisor challenged me to a game of pool. I'm TERRIBLE at pool and lost spectacularly. He then challenged me to a game of darts. I am mysteriously good at darts and I beat him quite spectacularly. Still not sure if I should let him win haha.

All in all, Sunday was a fun day!

Sunday night I didn't get a good sleep. There are zillions of mosquitos in Hai Ning and they all decided to buzz in my ear and eat

me alive. I already had a lot of bites but Sunday night was brutal. My roommate (and the girl who spoke the best English) was up very early Monday morning to catch a flight back to Beijing - she was leaving me! So that didn't help the sleep situtation.

Monday morning we took a drive around the West side of Hai Ning. There was much less to see. We drove for around 2 hours but we only made two stops and they were both very short. I napped pretty much the whole time.

After lunch, I was told that there was nothing more for me to do. They were going to have a meeting but I wasn't needed. Kinda lame. I decided to go for a walk in my area. I ended up back at that mall and decided to wander the upper floors where all the fur was. It got a little sketchy on the top floor...

After dinner, I swear to you, my supervisor said I should meet in the hotel lobby the next morning at 8:30AM. We were going to meet with the mayor of Hai Ning at

9AM. I swear to you he said this. This is important because the next morning I was in the hotel lobby at 8:30 and no one was there. I waited...and waited...then called my supervisor at 8:45. He was already in the meeting - they'd left at 8! See, although I now have my own hotel room, I knew losing my roommate would be bad because I'd be left even more in the dark. I trudged back up to my hotel room and decided to make the best of it by trying to find the hockey game online. For those that follow hockey, you'll know my morning ended up being AWESOME because I got to watch the LA Kings win the Stanley Cup!! So in the end being ditched was a good thing.

They came to find me for lunch. There was a new man and he ordered beers and gave me one. We had to do cheers a bunch of times which made the meal more complicated because I actually had to pay attention. The first time when he asked the whole table to cheers I had a piece of chicken in my mouth and was looking

at my plate when I heard everyone clink their glasses on the lazy susan. I looked up and they were all looking at me. I then quickly finished the chicken and clinken my glass. I could hear the new man asking about me - I recongnized the word "American" and one of my co-workers say "Canadian". I feel like I let him down because he asked if I was watching the Eurocup and I told the truth and said I wasn't. My supervisor explained that I was watching hockey (I mentioned to him that I'd watched the LA game and that they'd won the championship) and I heard him use the word "huabing" - figure skating. At the end when I finished my bottle of beer he gave me a thumbs up. So I did him proud anyways haha.

This afternoon I'm going to a meeting. I am told 2:10pm is when I'm supposed to meet. Let's see if anyone is down there...

It's getting very lonely in Hai Ning. I wish I had someone with me who spoke fluent English. Being lost in translation just really sucks. Meals are getting so tiring. There's

This blog was created in 2007 when I headed to Perth, Western Australia for a year-long study abroad program. There are still lots of great stories and pictures from that trip, though I got way behind on my blogging and the stories end abruptly in September, 2007 (I was in Aus until Christmas Eve!)
Although I've traveled a lot since then, I left this blog in a state of neglect for several years. But I figured another school-related international adventure was a reason to get things started again! In August 2011, I packed up my car and made the drive from my hometown of Toronto to the sunny ... full info

For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences, but in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the country was beset by civil unrest, major famines, military defeats, and foreign occupation. A...more history